The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
In general, an ice maker is configured such that water supplied from a water reservoir through a pump is cooled by an evaporator to produce ice in an ice making part, and then the produced ice is separated and falls down from the ice making part.
More specifically, the ice maker repeatedly performs ice making and separation processes, in which water supplied from the water reservoir to the ice making part is cooled to produce ice, and then the produced ice is stored in an ice reservoir, and so on.
More specifically, in the process of producing ice through the above-described processes, when it is determined that the ice making part completes the ice making process, water is allowed to be supplied to the water reservoir during an ice separation time while the ice making part is allowed to perform the ice separation process, whereby a following ice making process is prepared.
On the other hand, in a conventional ice maker, in order to inhibit or prevent contamination of water stored in the water reservoir, water stored in the water reservoir is drained and is newly supplied thereto per predetermined number of ice making cycles. However, we have discovered that in the case that water is supplied to the water reservoir for the same water supply time as when water stored in the water reservoir is not drained without considering a drainage time during which water stored in the water reservoir is drained, the water supply time may be reduced due to the drainage time and thus water may not be sufficiently supplied to the water reservoir, leading to a reduction in size of ice produced after water is drained.
The foregoing is intended merely to aid in the understanding of the background of the present disclosure, and is not intended to mean that the present disclosure falls within the purview of the related art that is already known to those skilled in the art.